Upland (founded in July 2018) is an NFT metaverse mapped to the real world and accessible via web, iOS, and Android. It has its own in-game economy, operating according to the laws of supply and demand set in motion by players.^[1][6]

Upland started in early 2018 during a late-night Monopoly game between the co-founders Mani, Idan, and Dirk.

It was a time when digital collectibles via non-fungible tokens based on blockchain technology started making a big splash in the news.

From that day forward, the three co-founders meet almost every day to plan, refine, and develop their vision for "Upland": a metaverse where people will not only play but also socialize and eventually be able to earn money.^[7]

After much brainstorming about the ideas, Mani, Idan, and Dirk started to look for a blockchain that would enable them to make their vision a reality.

They found it in the EOS blockchain developed by Block.one. Uplandme, Inc. was incorporated in July 2018. Soon thereafter the founders raised a seed round from angel investors and FinLab AG out of Germany and coding begin in earnest in December 2018. ^[2]

In June 2019, the company "Upland" allowed its first users to try its closed beta.

Then, since January 2020, Upland’s open beta has been live and available cross-platform, meaning web, iOS, and Android.

The goal of Upland is to establish an NFT gateway that will allow users to import NFTs from other blockchains, drivable cars, residential and commercial property development, and the introduction of businesses.^[3]

Upland was created and is operated by Uplandme, Inc., a Silicon Valley-based company with support from organizations such as Block.one (creators of EOSIO blockchain), and veterans from the gaming, real estate, and technology industries. Upland’s mission is to bring the benefits of blockchain technology to mass audiences through a gamified experience.

Upland's foundation is built on three pillars: entertainment, community, and business.

Upland has been in open beta since January 2020.

The company was founded by Dirk Lueth, Idan Zuckerman, and Mani Honigstein, each contributing from their own area of expertise.

The rest of the team includes a development division in Ukraine as well as professionals based in the US and Germany.

Upland’s platform is powered by the EOS blockchain. Each property in the platform is a unique digital item of which no two are the same and no single one can be owned by multiple parties – this is known as a Non-Fungible Token (NFT). ^[8]

Upland is creating a virtual property trading game based on real-world addresses.

It allows people to buy, collect, sell and trade the land in their city or elsewhere.

True ownership is secured on the blockchain and rewards players with Upland’s in-game currency UPX.

Upland is a game that appeals to a variety of players, driven by different motivations:

Upland makes use of a hybrid backend that combines a standard gaming stack for managing core gaming functions such as game logic, visualization, and content management, and a blockchain layer that serves to enable Upland’s core concepts of true ownership of all digital assets and an open economy.^[9]

Blockchain Layer: Upland utilizes the EOS mainnet for implementing its blockchain layer.

EOSIO technology offers several advantages that appealed to Upland’s requirements when compared to other potential public blockchains.

Upland aims to provide a clean, smooth user experience on the web, iOS, and Android in an effort to attract a wide audience.

The Property-to-USD program is still in beta, the ability to sell properties for USD is currently open to 100 Uplanders.

^[22]

The Upland token is a new non-fungible token that is used to represent NFTs that have been uploaded from other platforms and blockchains into Upland via the NFT Portal.

The Upland token only exists as long as the origin NFT is kept in Upland’s custody.

Upland provides two types of tokens:

In-game currency “UPX”: A fungible token on the EOS mainnet. UPX can be bought in the Upland store with fiat currency via 3rd party providers.

Virtual properties: A Non-Fungible Token (NFT) on the EOS mainnet which maps to real-world addresses, including precise parcel boundaries.

As long as players hold their property they earn recurrently UPX.

These recurrent earnings can be boosted by completing a predefined collection of properties in the same area or with similar characteristics.

Each of the collections requires a fixed number of properties to complete to receive the UPX earnings boost as well as a one-time UPX reward.

Upland uses the mainnet of the EOS blockchain to register and store the game’s assets, starting with property NFTs which mirror real-world addresses and geo-boundaries, and UPX, the fungible token and Upland’s virtual currency^[10]

Upland has partnered with Tilia Pay and the partnership enables Upland players to trade NFT-backed virtual properties based on real-world locations.

With more than 10,000 daily active users and over 40,000 monthly active users, Upland is making progress into an array of quickly growing blockchain-based games.

Upland has an open market economy based on true ownership.

The objective of the open market economy is to create a sound economy that blurs the boundaries with the real world, providing a decentralized market where stakeholders interact directly with each other.

Upland is built with players in mind who are not early adopters of cryptocurrencies and blockchain.^[23]

Upland also has a virtual collectibles game that represents real estate properties; which was initially in San Francisco and later in other cities and regions worldwide.^[6] Properties can be bought, traded, or sold. When properties are sold or traded, the property changes ownership which is recorded on the blockchain. Property ownership in Upland is independent of property ownership in real life.

Upland created an in-game currency called UPX, which can be purchased for fiat currency in the Upland store.

Properties can be bought for UPX and generate UPX earnings for their owners.

The game objective is to accumulate wealth in the form of properties and currency, as well as to ensure a constant flow of UPX earnings.^[11]

Upland makes use of a proprietary wallet coded into its smart client to communicate directly with the EOS mainnet and sign transactions on behalf of the player.^[26] The main purpose of this methodology is to allow non-tech-savvy players to play the game, while still enjoying the benefits that are made available by the use of blockchain technology, and allowing the players to play the game using different devices and different platforms.

User-owned private keys for EOS accounts associated with Uplanders are encrypted on the client level and can only be decrypted with the player’s credentials.

In cases where players lose access to their credentials, Upland offers a password recovery (and account permissions resetting) process which is based on email authentication, and per the player’s preferences, can be strengthened with 2-form-authentication using a phone, and/or adding security questions.^[25]

Dirk Lueth - Serial entrepreneur, mentor, and advisor, Dirk has been in the technology industry for more than 15 years, co-founding four startups and raising millions of dollars for his ventures.

He has served in various C-level positions of large scale companies and has mentored 30+ startups.

Dirk studied in Frankfurt and Paris and received a Ph.D. from the European Business School where he wrote his doctoral thesis about private and state-controlled currencies.

Mani Honigstein - An experienced executive and investor, Mani has served as a CEO, partner, advisor, and board member on investment funds, as well as in technology companies, over the past two decades. He has more than 10 years in the gaming and also trading businesses. Mani studied at the University of London and Harvard University.

Idan Zuckerman - A seasoned entrepreneur and executive, Idan has led both Product and R&D organizations as VP of Product and VP of R&D in the technology industry over the past two decades. His experience in gaming spans 10 years, and he has been a member of the founding team and an executive in RocketPlay, a company that was successfully acquired by American Gaming Systems. Idan studied at the Open University of Israel.

Kai Bolik - CEO and Co-Founder of GameDuell

Riz Virk - Founder of Play Labs at MIT

Michael Terpin - CEO and Founder of Transform Group

The Lead investor in Uplandme, Inc. is the FinLab EOS VC Fund, a joint venture between FinLab AG and EOSIO blockchain developer Block.one, two global experts in blockchain technology.

Additional investors include individuals from the financial services, real estate, gaming and blockchain industry.

FinLab AG is One of Europe’s first and largest investors in financial services technologies and blockchain.

FinLab focuses on providing venture capital to start-ups and strives to actively support its investments in the long term.^[5]